In a case of operating equipment by a user's voice, the details of the operation cannot be determined uniquely if the user's utterance is ambiguous. In order to solve this problem, conventionally, a method of allowing the user to select a correct candidate from among candidates provided by equipment as results of voice recognition is used typically. A problem with this method is, however, that because the method causes a transition to a screen which is specific to the voice operation and which does not exist in manual operations, it is difficult for the user to understand the procedure for selecting a correct candidate from among the candidates.
In order to solve the problem resulting from such the ambiguity of the user's utterance, patent reference 1 discloses an information input/output device that enables the user to correct interpretation results by voice, and to also select a candidate for the interpretation results by voice. In this information input/output device, an input interpretation candidate temporary output unit generates temporary presentation information which causes the user to select a candidate from among interpretation candidates which the input interpretation candidate temporary output unit has acquired from an input unit. A timer unit starts a time measuring operation in response to an output of the temporary presentation information, and generates a timer signal after a predetermined time interval has elapsed. When voice information for selection of a candidate is inputted from a voice recognition device or when the timer signal is emitted from the timer unit, an interpretation information selection/determination unit selects one candidate from among the interpretation candidates, and provides the selected candidate for an information processing unit as interpretation information. An output unifying unit unifies information output from the information processing unit, and the temporary presentation information from the input interpretation candidate set temporary output unit into information, and provides this information for an output unit as output information for the user.